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Concern over global environmental change and associated uncertainty has given rise to greater emphasis on fostering resilience through forest management. We examined the impact of standard silvicultural systems (including clearcutting, shelterwood, and selection) compared with unharvested controls on tree functional identity and functional diversity in three forest types distributed across the northeastern United States. Sites included the Argonne, Bartlett, and Penobscot Experimental Forests located in Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Maine, respectively. We quantified functional trait means for leaf mass per area, specific gravity, maximum height, height achieved at 20 years, seed mass, drought tolerance, shade tolerance,...
In this study we analyze and compare the climate impacts from the recovery, transport and combustion of forest residues (harvest slash and stumps), versus the climate impacts that would have occurred if the residues were left in the forest and fossil fuels used instead. We use cumulative radiative forcing (CRF) as an indicator of climate impacts, and we explicitly consider the temporal dynamics of atmospheric carbon dioxide and biomass decomposition. Over a 240-year period, we find that CRF is significantly reduced when forest residues are used instead of fossil fuels. The type of fossil fuel replaced is important, with coal replacement giving the greatest CRF reduction. Replacing oil and fossil gas also gives long-term...
We develop a new framework, based on Landsat time series data and forest inventories, to estimate the carbon in roundwood harvested from forest management activities, which will enter the HWP pool and remain stored in end uses and landfills. The approach keeps the distinction between the carbon from different types of roundwood sources, which allows for better integration with the regional HWP carbon lifetime information. We show that existing methods that are based on large scale regional/national values and linear interpolation of data gaps, can provide only very approximate carbon estimates. The model was applied to a US state using county level data, but can also suit different areas as long as sufficient harvest...
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These data were compiled to evaluate pinyon-juniper regeneration dynamics following stand-replacing wildfire and thinning treatments. Objectives of our study were to investigate vegetation community composition and tree recruitment in post-fire and post-thinning environments. These data represent plant and biological soil crust community composition and climatological records among intact, thinned, and burned pinyon–juniper woodlands. These data were collected in Mesa Verde National Park and Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Park from 6/1/2021 to 6/10/2021 and from 03/1/2022 to 11/30/2022 at two burned and two intact pinyon-juniper ecosystems in Mesa Verde National Park only. These data were collected by the U.S. Geological...
Categories: Data; Tags: Botany, Colorado, Echo House (historical), Ecology, Geography, All tags...
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These data consist of environmental covariates, measured plot-level and tree characteristics for seven coniferous tree species across the southwestern United States. The objectives of the study were to assess how growth characteristics of conifer tree species vary across environmental gradients and across the different tree species. These data represent conifer growth under a variety of stand and site characteristics. These data were collected in the summer of 2019, from sites across Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, and collected by field crews directed by Matt Petrie (University of Nevada Las Vegas), Rob Hubbard (USDA Forest Service), Tom Kolb (Northern Arizona University) and John Bradford (U.S. Geological...
Categories: Data; Tags: Arizona, Botany, California, Climatology, Colorado, All tags...
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Climate change will have sweeping impacts across the Northeast, yet there are key gaps in our understanding about whether species will be able to adapt to this changing environment. Results from this project will illuminate local and region-wide changes in forest ecosystems by studying the red-backed salamander, a species that is a strong indicator of forest conditions. This study identified habitat and forest characteristics that improve the resiliency of forest dwelling amphibians and other wildlife to climate change. Further, by studying a foundational species in forest floor ecosystems, the scientists can use the information to make inferences about rare and declining species. The researchers studied multiple...
Conclusions:Report reviews how forests and their management affect the quality and quantity of downstream municipal water supplies in the state of OregonThresholds/Learnings:When >25% of the watershed's forest cover is clearcut in a short period of only a few months, there is a measurable increase in annual streamflows from the watershed.
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These data were compiled to help understand how climate change may impact dryland pinyon-juniper ecosystems in coming decades, and how resource management might be able to minimize those impacts. Objective(s) of our study were to model the demographic rates of PJ woodlands to estimate the areas that may decline in the future vs. those that will be stable. We quantified populations growth rates across broad geographic areas, and identified the relative roles of recruitment and mortality in driving potential future changes in population viability in 5 tree species that are major components of these dry forests. We used this demographic model to project pinyon-juniper population stability under future climate conditions,...
Categories: Data; Tags: Arizona, Botany, California, Colorado, Ecology, All tags...
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Severe droughts cause widespread tree mortality and decreased growth in forests across the globe—even in areas with cooler climates. Mitigating the negative effects of climate change, in particular increased drought frequency and severity, poses a major challenge to forest managers. Managers are searching for strategies that minimize the negative effects of drought on forests (i.e. increase their resistance to drought) and maximize the ability of forests to recover after a drought (i.e. improve their resilience). Evidence suggests that forests with certain combinations of tree species, sizes, and stem densities are better able to withstand and recover from drought. The goal of this study was to identify which...
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The practice of fire suppression across the western United States over the past century has led to dense forests, and when coupled with drought has contributed to an increase in large and destructive wildfires. Forest management efforts aimed at reducing flammable fuels through various fuel treatments can help to restore frequent fire regimes and increase forest resilience. Our research examines how different fuel treatments influenced burn severity and post-fire vegetative stand dynamics on the San Carlos Apache Reservation, in east-central Arizona, U.S.A. Our methods included the use of multitemporal remote sensing data and cloud computing to evaluate burn severity and post-fire vegetation conditions as well as...
Open canopy conditions in southeastern pine (Pinus spp.) forests were historically maintained by frequent fire and other disturbances, without which midstory hardwoods create closed canopy conditions limiting value of pine stands for many endemic, disturbance-adapted species. Intensively managed pine forests, which comprise 19% of forests in the southeastern U.S., can emulate historical open pine conditions, providing appropriate vegetation structure and composition for many endemic species. However, exact mechanisms for producing and maintaining open pine conditions and subsequent effects on biodiversity have not been examined across regions and stand ages. To better inform managers about options for providing...
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The U.S. Forest Service plans to conduct forest restoration treatments through the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) on hundreds of thousands of acres of ponderosa pine forest along the Mogollon Rim of Arizona over the next 20 years with the goals of reducing wildfire hazard and improving forest health. The 4FRI’s key objective is to thin and burn the forests to create within-stand openings that “promote snowpack accumulation and retention which benefit groundwater recharge and watershed processes at the fine (1 to 10 acres) scale.” However, little is known about how these openings created by restoration treatments affect snow water equivalence (SWE) and soil moisture, which are key parts of the water balance...
Categories: Data; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2013, AL-04, AZ-01, Academics & scientific researchers, Applications and Tools, All tags...
The cumulative impacts of human and natural activity on forest landscapes in Alberta are clear. Human activity, such as forestry and oil and gas development, and natural processes such as wildfire leave distinctive marks on the composition, age class structure and spatial configuration of the forest. Also, other processes such as climate change may be slowly and subtly modifying forest dynamics and may lead to important changes over time. Given the importance and ubiquitous nature of these cumulative impacts, a forest management plan that does not adequately take such impacts into account cannot be expected to adequately manage the forest, neither its components nor its processes. In order to address the question...
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These data consist of environmental covariates and estimated plot-level mortality of ponderosa pine trees. Environmental covariates include growing season temperature and soil moisture, and values are summarized into long-term mean conditions, and anomalies observed between forest inventory sampling events for each plot. Data also include plot locations (with uncertainty introduced by the US Forest Service to maintain private property rights), plot basal area, and several variables related to estimated mortality rate of ponderosa pine trees under various assumptions about basal area conditions.
Categories: Data; Tags: Arizona, Botany, California, Climatology, Colorado, All tags...
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Northern Arizona University will build upon the U.S. Forest Service Four Forest Restoration Initiative in Northern Arizona to investigate how restoration efforts can affect the water volume available in the snowpack and soil moisture in the Desert LCC. This project will result in a tool that can be used to predict the water volume in snowpack and soil moisture response to various forest treatments.
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2013, AL-04, AZ-01, Academics & scientific researchers, Applications and Tools, All tags...
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The US Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, and Oregon State University established the Young Stand Thinning and Diversity Study (YSTDS) in 1990 to demonstrate and test options for young stand management in western Oregon. The YSTDS is designed to determine if different thinning, underplanting, and snag creation treatments in 35-50 year-old plantations can accelerate the development of late-seral conditions. The study was implemented on 4 replicate blocks, each consisting of an untreated Control stand and 1 each of the following stand-level thinning treatments: (1) a Light Thin treatment, approximating the timber industry standard, with about 260 residual trees per hectare (tph; 100/acre); (2) a Heavy...
We responded to the claim by Greenwald et al. (2005) that the management recommendations for the northern goshawk in the Southwestern United States (MRNG; Reynolds et al. 1992), a food web-based conservation plan that incorporated both northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) and multiple prey habitats, may be inadequate to protect goshawks. Greenwald et al. (2005) based this claim on their review of 12 telemetry studies of goshawk habitat selection and 5 nontelemetry studies of the effects of vegetation structure at the home range scale on goshawk nest occupancy and reproduction that appeared after the 1992 publication of the MRNG. Greenwald et al. (2005) summarized their review as showing that 1) goshawks were habitat...
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Conclusions: Elk habitat selection ratios varied in response to road pattern. Regularly spaced roads negatively influenced habitat selection, whereas a clumped pattern supported larger blocks of road-free habitat. Road density threshold at which elk could still occur in high numbers: 1.5 km/km⊃2; Thresholds/Learnings: Road density threshold at which elk could still occur in high numbers: 1.5 km/km⊃2; Synopsis: This study tested 3 aspects of an elk road density model to determine patterns of elk behavior relative to road density and configuration. The study compared model predictions with observed values of elk habitat selection at varying levels of road density. It also compared the effect of different spatial...
Quaking aspen cover 3.3 million hectares in the Upper Colorado River Basin, and these areas are gradually converting to conifer forest by the natural process of ecological succession. This change is being hastened by forest managment practices that reduce fires, destroy pests, or otherwise prevent the natural processes that previously caused conifer areas to revert to the subclimax aspen. The hydrologic consequence has been forecast to cause a runoff reduction in the Colorado River as large as one million acre-feet annually, a major blow to water availability in the Lower Basin. Understanding and dealing with the problems requires quantitative comparision of the evaportranspiration rates of conifer and aspen forests...
    map background search result map search result map Elk distribution and modeling in relation to roads Predicting Snow Water Equivalence (SWE) and Soil Moisture Response to Restoration Treatments in Headwater Ponderosa Pine Forests of the Desert LCC Understanding the Future of Red-Backed Salamanders as an Indicator of Future Forest Health Informing and Evaluating Forest Management Strategies to Promote Drought Resistance Dataset for 2013 Creek Fire Research Points, Pre- and Post-Fire Data, U.S. Geological Survey Final Report: Predicting Snow Water Equivalence (SWE) and Soil Moisture Response to Restoration Treatments in Headwater Ponderosa Pine Forests of the Desert LCC Estimated tree mortality, basal area, climate, and drought conditions for ponderosa pine in forest inventory plots across the western U.S. Bird Responses to Young Stand Thinning in Western Oregon in 2013 Pinyon-juniper basal area, climate and demographics data from National Forest Inventory plots and projected under future density and climate conditions Site characterization and regeneration attributes of managed and unmanaged ponderosa pine sites in the southwestern United States Site data from observations of post-fire and thinned stands of piñon-juniper woodlands on the Colorado Plateau Bird Responses to Young Stand Thinning in Western Oregon in 2013 Predicting Snow Water Equivalence (SWE) and Soil Moisture Response to Restoration Treatments in Headwater Ponderosa Pine Forests of the Desert LCC Final Report: Predicting Snow Water Equivalence (SWE) and Soil Moisture Response to Restoration Treatments in Headwater Ponderosa Pine Forests of the Desert LCC Pinyon-juniper basal area, climate and demographics data from National Forest Inventory plots and projected under future density and climate conditions Estimated tree mortality, basal area, climate, and drought conditions for ponderosa pine in forest inventory plots across the western U.S. Understanding the Future of Red-Backed Salamanders as an Indicator of Future Forest Health Informing and Evaluating Forest Management Strategies to Promote Drought Resistance Site characterization and regeneration attributes of managed and unmanaged ponderosa pine sites in the southwestern United States